4x4 drivers: human, too?

Chancellors rarely boast about raising taxes, and Gordon Brown is no different.

Yet he has made an exception, explaining proudly in a series of interviews this morning that one particular group will have to cough up more thanks to his budget.

What is this marginalised minority? 4x4 drivers, of course.

Tax cuts for some have been financed by higher revenues elsewhere, Mr Brown told the Radio 4 Today programme. "That is why, of course, if you have got a 4x4, you are going to pay more road tax," he said.

Mr Brown identified the same group as budget losers on both BBC Breakfast and Sky News.

But, as the beleaguered four-wheel drive owners point out, not all such models are gas guzzlers of the type being targeted by means of the chancellor's higher levels of vehicle duty for high-emission vehicles.

So why single them out? Because these days, 4x4 drivers are the minority it's ok for everyone to hate. No apologies needed, no caveats given.

Is this fair? To many people, yes. These behemoths are fume-belching, child-killing, badly driven symbols of affluent, everyone-else-get stuffed, selfishness, critics charge.

Engineered to tackle 45-degree muddy slopes, these Range Rovers and Toyota Landcruisers instead charge through narrow city streets on school runs, shoving smaller cars, cyclists and pedestrians to one side, opponents say. And don't even get them started on models like the BMW X5 and the somewhat ludicrous Porsche Cayenne.

As a city dweller, especially one who cycles most of the time, I confess to similar feelings, especially when the leviathan bearing down on me is adorned with bull bars.

It is, perhaps, a prejudice. A 4x4 driver who cuts me up is likely to get a more vocal, heartfelt volley of abuse than the driver of a Nissan Micra. But at the same time I realise he or she could - in theory - be an innocent farmer or other countryside dweller who genuinely needs the vehicle.

Is it time to join Mr Brown and admit we're prejudiced against 4x4 drivers? And if so, should we change our ways?